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The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons (Spanish: Galeones de Manila-Acapulco) were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco, Mexico. The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from. Service was inaugurated in 1565 and continued into the early 19th century. The Mexican War of Independence put a permanent stop to the galleons. Though service was not inaugurated until almost 60 years after the death of Christopher Columbus, the Manila galleons constitute the fulfillment of Columbus’ dream of sailing west to go east to bring the riches of the Indies to Spain and the rest of Europe.
Discovery of the route
The Manila-Acapulco galleon trade began when Andrés de Urdaneta, sailing in convoy under Miguel López de Legazpi, discovered a return route from Cebu City to Mexico in 1565. Attempting the return, the fleet split up, some heading south. Urdaneta reasoned that the trade winds of the Pacific might move in a gyre as the Atlantic winds did. If in the Atlantic, ships made a wide swing (the “volta”) to the west to pick up winds that would bring them back from Madeira, then, he reasoned, by sailing far to the north before heading east, he would pick up trade winds to bring him back to the west coast of North America. Though he sailed to 38 degrees North before turning east, his hunch paid off, and he hit the coast near Cape Mendocino, California, then followed the coast south to Acapulco. Most of his crew died on the long initial voyage, for which they had not sufficiently provisioned.
By the eighteenth century it was understood that a less northerly track was sufficient, but galleon navigators steered well clear of the forbidding and rugged fogbound California coast; “they generally made their landfall well down the coast, somewhere between Point Conception and Cape San Lucas. After all, these were preeminently merchant ships, and the business of exploration lay outside their field, though chance discoveries were welcomed”.
The first motivation for exploration of Alta California was to scout out possible way-stations for the seaworn Manila galleons on the last leg of their journey. Early proposals came to little, but in the later eighteenth century several Manila galleons put in at Monterey.
Spice trade
Trade served as the fundamental income-generating business for Spanish colonists living in the Philippine Islands. A total of 110 Manila galleons set sail in the 250 years of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade (1565 to 1815). Until 1593, three or more ships would set sail annually from each port. The Manila trade was becoming so lucrative that the merchants of Seville petitioned Philip, complaining of their losses, and secured a law in 1593 that set a limit of only two ships to sail each year from either port, with one kept in reserve in Acapulco and one in Manila. An “armada”, an armed escort was also allowed.
With such limitations, it was essential to build the largest possible galleons, which were the largest ships built anywhere up to that time. In the 16th century, they averaged from 1,700 to 2,000 tons, were built of Philippine hardwoods and might carry a thousand passengers. The “Concepción”, wrecked in 1638, was 43 to 49 m (140-160 feet) long and displacing some 2,000 tons. Most of the ships were built in the Philippines and only eight in Mexico. The Manila-Acapulco galleon trade ended when Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, after which the Spanish crown took direct control of the Philippines. (This became manageable in the mid-1800s upon the invention of steam power ships and the opening of the Suez Canal, which reduced the travel time from Spain to the Philippines to 40 days.)
The galleons carried spices, porcelain, ivory, lacquerware, processed silk cloth gathered from both the Spice Islands and Asia-Pacific, to be sold in European markets. The cargoes were transported by land across Mexico to the port of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico, where they were loaded onto the Spanish treasure fleet bound for Spain. This route avoided the long and dangerous trip across the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope, a route that was barred by the Dutch once they were in control of the Cape Colony. The Spanish knew that the American continent was much narrower across the Panamanian isthmus than across Mexico. They tried to establish a regular land crossing there, but the thick jungle and malaria made it impractical.
It took four months to sail across the Pacific Ocean from Manila to Acapulco, and the galleon was the main link between the Philippines and the viceregal capital at Mexico City and thence to Spain itself. Many of the Spaniards in the Philippines were actually of Mexican descent. In fact the Hispanic culture of the Philippines is closer to Mexican culture than any other. Even when Mexico finally gained its independence, the two nations still continued to trade, except for a brief lull during the Spanish-American War. The Manila galleon sailed the Pacific for nearly three centuries, bringing to Spain their cargoes of luxury goods, economic benefits, and cultural exchange.
The wrecks of the Manila galleons are legends second only to the wrecks of treasure ships in the Caribbean. In 1568, Miguel López de Legazpi’s own ship, the San Pablo (300 tons), was the first Manila galleon to be wrecked en route to Mexico.
Santa Margarita:
Unfortunately, manifests cannot be located for Manila galleons of the era of the Santa Margarita. However, its cargo can be estimated from surviving records of Spanish officials (a sample excerpt is presented below), and from the meticulous inventories by English privateers following the capture of Manila galleons.
As an example of Spanish records describing the typical cargo of a Manila galleon, the president of the audiencia at Manila, Antonio De Morga, writing about ten years after the loss of the Santa Margarita, described the range of goods which the Spanish were buying in Manila, much of it destined to be cargo on Manila galleons. De Morga’s list included fine fabrics, as follows:
“…raw silk in bundles, of the fineness of two strands, and other silk of coarser quality; fine untwisted silk, white and of all colors, wound in small skeins; quantities of velvets, some plain and some embroidered in all sorts of figures, colors and fashions, others with body of gold and embroidered with gold; woven stuffs and brocades, of gold and silver upon silk of various colors and patterns; quantities of gold and silver thread in skeins; damasks, satins, taffetas, and other cloths of all colors; linen made from grass, called, lençesuelo; and white cotton cloth of different kinds and quantities. ”
De Morga describes other goods brought by the Chinese to trade in Manila:
“…musk, benzoin and ivory; many bed ornaments, hangings, coverlets, and tapestries of embroidered velvet; damask and gorvaran tapestries of different shades; tablecloths, cushions and carpets; horse-trappings of the same stuffs, and embroidered with glass beads and seed pearls; also pearls and rubies, sapphires and crystal; metal basins, copper kettles and other copper and cast-iron pots; quantities of all sorts of nails, sheet iron, tin and lead; and saltpeter and gunpowder. …strings of cornelians and other beads, and precious stones of all colors; pepper and other spices. ”
Dr. Eugene Lyon, writing for the National Geographic magazine in a 1990 article has this description of the cargo of a typical Manila galleon.
“The Philippines themselves furnished some gold, copra, and coconut-shell products, cotton cloth from Ilocos on Luzon, cotton stockings and petticoats, and gauze made in Cebu. They also produced burlap, rope, and hammocks made of hemp. Skilled Chinese and Filipino artisans in Manila wrought delicate filigree jewelry and gold chains. “Craftsmen from India and Ceylon shipped Bengal taffetas, pearls, diamonds, and topazes, carved ivory chests, fine handkerchiefs, intricate woodcarvings, and bedspreads from Surate. From imperial Japan came amber, wheat flour, suits of armor, katanas (samurai swords) knives, saltpeter to make gunpowder, and cabinetwork. “Bezoar stones from Asia, taken from the stomachs of ruminant animals, were sent on the Manila galleons. Europeans believed they could signal the presence of poison in wine. “The Spice Islands supplied clove, cinnamon, and pepper. From Borneo came sago flour, camphor, ceramic wares, and precious gems. Cambodia, Malaya, Siam, and Cochin China provided musk, civet, and other essences, tin, ivory, rubies, and sapphires.
“But the most important trade came from the Chinese mainland. For that reason the Spaniards called the Manila galleon nao de la China, ‘the ship of China. “Skeins of raw yellow silk, the finest white silk cloth and the most coarse grogram, richly embroidered satin bedspreads, sumptuous brocades and damasks, linen and satin cloth, costly gold and silver ribbons, painted shawls, and silk stockings arrived from Canton and Amoy on Chinese junks. There were copper kettles, forged ironwork, jade statues, paneled screens, chests of perfumed sandalwood, lacquered writing desks, figurines of carved ivory, delicate paper-and-ivory fans, exquisite Ming…dynasty porcelain wares with rich, deep colors, imaginative designs, and quality glazes. European artisans would not unlock the secret of making porcelain until the 18th century. “As this Oriental ware, called chinoiserie, began to reach the West in quantity, it increasingly influenced European styles. In turn the Chinese began to manufacture specifically for the West: They made altarware and tableware, crucifixes, Christian images, and rosaries. They sent children’s toys and virtually every kind of bric-a-brac. They also shipped gold bullionto Manila to be directly exchanged for silver.”
Finally, there is the question of contraband, cargo hidden to escape the tax, which was referred to as “the royal fifth.” Practically all of the contraband would be high value in a small volume, such as gold and gemstones, and therefore would be most likely to survive both the wrecking process and, in the case of the Santa Margarita, four hundred years on a windward reef. In a number of documented cases, the value of contraband exceeded the value of the rest of the cargo combined. As to how and where it would be hidden, Dr. Lyon says, “Stashes of unregistered bullion were made in every part of a ship in hollowed-out timbers, within bales of cloth, even inside the rinds of cheeses.” In an ironic twist to the usual need to pay taxes to the government, historians, Drs. Hebb and Earle, found correspondence between the Spanish king and his agent in Manila confirming that the King’s taxes from the Philippines, in gold coin and bullion, were shipped on the ill fated Santa Margarita.
